365 HCC patients who had solitary, < 3cm, and hypervascular nodule were treated with TACE. Among them, 30 patients followed by SBRT (SBRT group) and 38 patients without additional therapy and previous HCC treatment (control group) were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. Local tumor progression, complication, and disease free survival were compared between these groups.

RESULTS:

There was no difference in clinical background between these groups. Complete response to therapy was noted in 29 (96.3%) patients of the SBRT group, and in only one (3.3%) patient of the TACE group (P<0.001). None of the patients newly developed acute hematologic toxicity of more than CTCAE Grade 3 during and after the treatment. Furthermore, none of the SBRT group developed radiation-induced liver damage. DFS of the 12 patients without previous HCC treatments in SBRT group was significantly superior to that in control group (15.7 months vs 4.2 months; P=0.029).

CONCLUSION:

The results indicated that SBRT combined with TACE is a safe and effective modality for locoregional treatment of small solitary primary HCC, and could be potentially a suitable option.